The figures from Strategy Analytics also showed that 361 million handsets were shipped, up 13% on the previous year.

Nokia remained the biggest seller of all types of handsets, but the numbers shipped and its market share fell. It shipped 20% fewer handsets in the second quarter - 88.5 million. The Finnish firm's market share dipped to 25% — its lowest level since 1999.

The report describes Apple as the "star performer" during the quarter, more than doubling its handset shipments to a record 20.3 million units.

The marketing-research company Strategy Analytics said Apple jumped from owning 13.5 percent of the market in the second quarter of 2010 to 18.5 percent of the market in second quarter of 2011.

PC World reports that Nokia's huge loss of market share started since "its February announcement that its future smartphones will run Microsoft's Windows Phone instead of its own Symbian OS..."